Names of 1937 to be read in full on 14 November

14 October 2026

On Saturday 14 November, the Commemoration of the victims of 1937, the Holy Qurbana will be celebrated at 9:30 for the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the diocese who were arrested, shot or sent to the camps in 1937 and 1938. On that day in 1937 the painter Yusup Ayyubov, who learned his art in the icon workshop of this cathedral, was shot.

After the Qurbana the names of the victims will be read in full in the cathedral. This year the Diocesan Archives have added 61 names, found in parish registers returned from the State Archives and in letters given by families. The reading is expected to take about three hours, and the great bell will toll once for every hundred names.

Families who know of a relative arrested in those years for their faith, and whose name may not yet be on the list, are asked to write to the Diocesan Archives.